Tropical rainforest flies carrying pathogens form stable associations with social nonhuman primates
Abstract
Living in groups provides benefits but also incurs costs such as attracting disease vectors. For example, synanthropic flies associate with human settlements, and higher fly densities increase pathogen transmission. We investigated whether such associations also exist in highly mobile nonhuman primate (NHP) Groups. We studied flies in a group of wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys) and three communities of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire. We observed markedly higher fly densities within both mangabey and chimpanzee groups. Using a mark–recapture experiment, we showed that flies stayed with the sooty mangabey group for up to 12 days and for up to 1.3 km. We also tested mangabey-associated flies for pathogens infecting mangabeys in this ecosystem, Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis (Bcbva), causing sylvatic anthrax, and Treponema pallidum pertenue, causing yaws. Flies contained treponemal (6/103) and Bcbva (7/103) DNA. We cultured Bcbva from all PCR-positive flies, confirming bacterial viability and suggesting that this bacterium might be transmitted and disseminated by flies. Whole genome sequences of Bcbva isolates revealed a diversity of Bcbva, probably derived from several sources. We conclude that flies actively track mangabeys and carry infectious bacterial pathogens; these associations represent an understudied cost of sociality and potentially expose many social animals to a diversity of pathogens.
Citation
Gogarten , J F , Düx , A , Mubemba , B , Pléh , K , Hoffmann , C , Mielke , A , Müller-Tiburtius , J , Sachse , A , Wittig , R M & Calvignac-Spencer , S 2019 , ' Tropical rainforest flies carrying pathogens form stable associations with social nonhuman primates ' , Molecular Ecology , vol. 28 , no. 18 , pp. 4242-4258 . https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15145
Publication
Molecular Ecology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0962-1083Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15145
Description
This study was supported in part by the DFG Research Group “Sociality and Health in Primates” (FOR2136). JFG was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research’s Systems Biology Training Program, an NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS), a long-term Research Grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD-91525837-57048249), and also by the DAAD with funds from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement n° 605728 (P.R.I.M.E. – Postdoctoral Researchers International Mobility Experience). Core-funding for the Taï Chimpanzee Project is provided 645 by the Max Planck Society.Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.